In late summer of 1882, long-suffering American prospector, Robert Sproule, rows his way up Kootenay Lake to a promontory known as Big Ledge. Almost at once he finds himself encamped on an extremely rich lode of high grade lead, likely laced with silver. Riches seem just around the corner. But another adventurer is on Kootenay Lake as well: the Englishman, Baillie-Grohman. His plans are even more grandiose than Sproule’s. And down in Oakland, California, businessman John C. Ainsworth is making plans to buy up the very property on which Sproule sits.